


Waiting By The Phone

by darlingria



Category: YANK! - Zellnik/Zellnik
Genre: (it's not really addressed but it's a thing), (mitch has a bit of a drinking problem), (that's why it's rated teen & up i had a mild crisis deciding), M/M, Modern AU, Short One Shot, bitch adams: coping badly, mitch is a problem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-04-26 00:48:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14390640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlingria/pseuds/darlingria
Summary: Stu's away on business. Time zones are a bitch.





	Waiting By The Phone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jean_grantaire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jean_grantaire/gifts).



He knows he’s being unreasonable, but for one reason or another, everybody in the house is grating on his nerves today. Marcia, in the absence of her pretty, saccharine girlfriend, has spent all day conspiring with his sister, shooting him looks he can only interpret as contemptuous, Rotelli and Professor haven’t stopped cracking hard candy since he got up, and it’s small comfort that Goldberg is out fucking his energiser bunny of a boyfriend in Venice, because, of _course_ , he’s taken Stu with him.

 

And _god_ , Mitch needs a drink. 

 

He snaps at Bonnie the second he senses her rising to come between him and his drink, and he honestly doesn’t know why he’s more preoccupied with getting her out of the way than the look of hurt disappointment that flashes across her face. So he’s failed her. What else is new. 

 

(Except he does know, doesn’t he? Because he really only wants to be with Stu right now, and Stu is off in Italy with…) 

 

“That really how you talk to your sister, Adams?” Marcia drawls lazily, and her muted, almost gentle tone irks him more than anything. He just grunts irritably at her and, bottle in one hand, phone in the other (Stu might call, but that has _nothing to do with it_ , except…), retreats to his room. 

 

His phone starts ringing (that corny old song Stu loves so much, _Rememb’ring You_ ) halfway through his second beer, and he almost knocks it over in his rush to check who’s calling. And it’s Stu’s face there, on the screen, laughing obliviously, unaware that he’s being photographed, and if not for the promise of seeing him move and smile and talk he could stare at that picture forever. (Sometimes it feels like Stu’s the only person in this whole damn house who understands him, the only person who doesn’t hate him or pity him or… _something_.) 

 

He picks up before the third ring. 

 

“Hey, sweetheart.” Stu lights up at the greeting, a little grainy in the grey morning light. He rolls over on his hotel bed and turns away for a moment to disentangle his feet from the slightly rumpled white sheets, and it’s Stu — tired, bleary, but there, and real, and for a moment _close_. “How’s tomorrow look?” 

 

Stu laughs, cuts himself off with a teary-eyed yawn. “ _Early_ ,” he gripes good-naturedly. “I have to—” 

 

Someone raps insistently against his door, and he drops his phone camera-down in surprise. Mitch was hoping for a little more than _complete darkness_ from this call. 

 

“Rise and shine, kid, we’ve got work to do!” 

 

And he’s going to _kill_ Goldberg, just to never have to hear that gleeful smirking druggie’s voice again. Stu picks up the phone and grimaces apologetically at Mitch, a little too close to the camera, a little too rushed for a clear view. “Sorry, I have to— I’m coming, I’m coming! I love you, I’ll call you later, okay?” 

 

Then the call is over, far too soon. Still. _Later_. There’s always later. 

 

He sighs and returns to his beer. 

**Author's Note:**

> sorry to al for screaming at him about Literally every step of this process ily  
> one day there will be context to this i swear


End file.
